Waterbury Town Meeting preview: in person & on the ballots
February 26, 2024 | By Lisa ScagliottiMarch 4 UPDATE: Bob Butler is a write-in candidate for the Waterbury Board of Listers that he has been serving on. He said he missed the filing deadline but would love to continue on the board. He needs 30 votes to be elected.
The cover of Waterbury’s 2024 Annual Town Report that’s available online and in paper copies.
Voters across Vermont will have a full slate of business to decide on Town Meeting Day next Tuesday, March 5. And although early voting is already available at local town offices, not all Waterbury questions are on the ballot.
Waterbury holds an in-person town meeting which begins at 9 a.m. in the gym at Brookside Primary School.
Town government questions are debated and voted at that meeting by those who attend. The items include the town budget and other financial questions affecting the town budget.
This year, the Waterbury Select Board approved a budget drafted by Municipal Manager Tom Leitz totaling $6,305,174. Of that, $4.4 million will come from property taxes. That represents an increase of 3.3% over the 2023 budget.
Town officials anticipate that the tax rate to support the budget will be $.557 per $100 assessed property value, an increase of 2.4% over last year’s rate of just under 55 cents. The tax rate is set in early July based on an updated grand list of taxable property that’s finalized each April. (budget highlights below)
Town Meeting typically runs until about noon and also features remarks from state representatives to the legislature, announcements from local officials and the presentation of the Keith Wallace Community Service Award. Longtime Town Moderator Jeff Kilgore will start the meeting but in 2023 said this would be his last year to serve. Rebecca Ellis, a former Waterbury Select Board chair and state representative, met with the Select Board last week as Kilgore’s potential successor.
Before, during, and after town meeting, local voters also may cast their ballots in the school gym, starting at 7 a.m. through 7 p.m. Paper ballots this year include the U.S. presidential primary ballots, the local town and school offices ballot, and ballots with budget questions from the Harwood Unified Union School District and the Central Vermont Career Center School District. The only contested race on the Waterbury ballot is a three-way race for two one-year terms on the Select Board. (Read more about the Select Board race and candidates here.)
Early is available now although receiving and sending ballots by mail may not be reliable to have them arrive on time. Voters can fill out ballots at the town clerk’s office during regular hours this week and Monday, March 4. Anyone who has received their ballots by mail may drop them in the dropbox outside the municipal building entrance. That box will be locked at 4:30 p.m. on March 4, however, so any ballots to be returned after that would need to be dropped off at the polling location at Brookside Primary School on March 5. New voters may also register to vote anytime including on election day.
All of the town business items can be found on the Town Meeting warning, posted on the town website’s Town Clerk-Voting & Elections page. Sample ballots are there as well as warnings, sample ballots, etc. for school district business and the presidential primaries.
Look for paper copies of the Waterbury Annual Report around town. Photo by Lisa Scagliotti
More details including reports from the town manager, the Waterbury Select Board, other town boards and commissions, and nonprofit organizations with funding requests this year are in the town Annual Report. That is also posted online and available around town in paper copies. Town Clerk Karen Petrovic said local residents can find copies inside the lobby at the municipal offices and at the Waterbury Public Library. Other spots are: Maplewood Convenience Store, Billings Mobil, Kinney Drugs, Waterbury True Value Hardware, Northfield Savings Bank, Vermont State Employees Credit Union, M&T Bank and the Waterbury Post Office.
Anyone who would like a report mailed to them may contact Petrovic at 802-244-8447 or email to karen@waterburyvt.com to request one.
This year’s report has an aerial photo of Waterbury village by Waterbury photographer Gordon Miller on the cover. It is dedicated to local volunteers including those who regularly volunteer on town boards and commissions, with local organizations, and when needed such as during last year’s two floods.
“This is a great community, and we are lucky that so many people are willing to do just a little bit more to make it kinder, more fun, more creative, more connected and more resilient,” the report dedication states. It also recognizes one volunteer in particular: “We want to give a special shout-out to a longtime volunteer who this year celebrates 30 years as a Justice of the Peace. Thank you, Marion Wells Howes.”
Child care & lunch on Town Meeting Day
On Town Meeting Day, parents with young children can sign up for free child care at Brookside Primary School during the in-person meeting. Harwood National Honor Society student volunteers will be on hand to look after the youngsters in The Children’s Room on the lower level of the school. Petrovic said that there will be capacity for up to 15 children with an online sign-up form posted soon. All ages are welcome and child care is free but parents need to register using this online form on the Waterbury Recreation Department website.
In addition, staff from the Waterbury Area Senior Center will be preparing and serving lunch in the school cafeteria from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The menu will be beef and vegetarian stew, salad, homemade biscuits, homemade raspberry and blueberry bars, lemonade, coffee and water.
There will be takeout containers available or people can eat in the cafeteria. Senior Center staff said there will be no set price – attendees may pay with a donation of their choosing.
Town budget highlights
Municipal Manager Leitz describes the rationale behind the proposed 2024 budget in detail in his report printed in the annual report.
Going into this year, the town’s finances have a $195,000 surplus to put towards 2024 expenses. Leitz noted that is despite unexpected costs last year due to the two flood events. The town has applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for reimbursement for flood-related expenses of $185,000 including extra staff time and road repairs. Leitz said it will take months for that claim to be processed and that money may not be received until 2025. A $33,000 portion of that reimbursement would be allocated to the town’s new long-term flood-recovery group CReW for ongoing work to assist property owners that were impacted last year.
Some highlights in this year’s budget include:
An increase in the town paving budget from $405,000 to $450,000. In addition to paving Kennedy Drive and Ashford Lane following water line construction last fall, projects this year include Union Street and starting a multi-year effort on Kneeland Flats Road. In addition, a section of Kneeland Flats/Ripley roads that is now gravel will be paved to Ring Road to cut down on maintenance on that curve.
$75,000 for pre-construction work on the Stowe Street bridge near Rt. 100. This is a portion of the town’s 5% share of the cost to replace that bridge. The Vermont Agency of Transportation timeline anticipates work to take place in 2025.
$20,000 for the purchase and setup of new software for the Planning and Zoning Department to update permitting to an online system. In addition, the budget includes an increase of $10,000 for additional legal services to address zoning enforcement review and a backlog of actions needed to address properties not in compliance with permitting requirements that the department anticipates in the year ahead.
The budget also has an increase of $49,000 for Waterbury Ambulance Service which is an independent nonprofit emergency response organization. The ambulance service has not increased its fees in recent years and the town’s appropriation will go from $26 to $35 per capita. This aims to align town support with the service’s costs and insufficient revenue from Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements. Leitz noted that the funding is for operations, not the new ambulance station project expected to break ground this year. An additional increase next year is anticipated as well, he noted.
At $1.39 million, the highway department budget is essentially the same as the 2023 budget which was $1.38 million. The library budget, however, shows an increase of 13% in part due to increased health insurance costs and an effort to increase staff wages to comparable levels to other town employees, Leitz said. Funding for salaries was increased by $28,000 for this year. Some of that will be offset by a larger than usual transfer from the library’s trust fund, Leitz explained. The trust will provide $45,000 to this year’s budget, an increase of $15,000 over recent years’ allocations. Leitz said the decision to increase library staff wages came after a look at other town staff wages and comparable positions at libraries in other communities. “It boils down to a pay equity issue,” he said.
To support the overall 2025 town budget, the projected property tax increase of 1.3 cents would translate to just over $13 per $100,000 assessed property value. A home valued at $300,000 would see a property tax increase of $39.28. The tax rate is set in early July once the town’s grand list of property values is finalized.
In addition to the budget, Article 8 on the town meeting warning asks voters to approve short-term borrowing of up to $380,000 to purchase a new fire tank truck. Waterbury Fire Department is looking to replace one of two trucks purchased in 1999, according to Fire Chief Gary Dillon. The Fire Department has the opportunity to buy one used as a demonstration model, at a savings of approximately $50,000. If approved, the truck would not arrive until November, Dillon said.
Funding to nonprofits
The warning also lists 25 special requests for the town to allocate tax dollars to a host of local and regional nonprofit organizations. The requests total $43,483, up 10.5% over last year’s allocations.
Article 10 lists 15 requests ranging from $200 to $1,500 for a total of $12,225. They would be voted as one question. Most of these requests are for regional organizations including Capstone Community Action ($1,000), the Family Center of Washington County ($1,000), Elevate Youth Services ($1,500) and Downstreet Housing and Community Development ($1,500). Two requests on this list are local nonprofits: Friends of the Waterbury Reservoir ($1,000) and the Waterbury Community Band ($800).
Another 10 articles individually list requests from $2,000 to $6,500, together totaling $31,258. These include $4,125 for the American Legion, $4,000 for The Children’s Room and $3,000 for Washington County Mental Health. A request for $6,500 from the Waterbury Area Senior Center is in addition to $32,500 already contained in the town budget as a separate line item. Both figures are the same funding approved by voters for the senior center in 2023.
The town report has information from the organizations requesting town funding.
School district ballots
Voters will receive two paper ballots with school budget questions: one each for the Harwood Unified Union and Central Vermont Career Center school districts.
The proposed 2024-25 budget for the Harwood district is $50.8 million, an increase of 11.9% over the budget for the current school year. Big drivers of that increase are health insurance for district staff which is going up 16%, higher special education costs, and contractual wage increases. The district is trimming the equivalent of 13 positions this year to account for the loss of federal funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that is ending in September. District officials did not add new programming spending with this budget, but they did include $1 million for the Maintenance Reserve Fund to put towards school building repairs.
Based on the most recent state education funding data, school property taxes in the Harwood district are estimated to be increasing between 22% and 32% to support the proposed budget. The estimated increase for Waterbury is 25.9% or $493 per $100,000 of assessed property value. Final data needed in the tax calculation will not be available until later this spring.
In addition to the budget question, voters are asked to approve putting $535,000 of unspent funds from 2023 into the maintenance fund. This is a customary item that voters have seen since the district unified in 2017. The maintenance fund currently has a balance of less than $3 million and a list of projects totaling $19 million over the next four years.
The Harwood School Board will host its annual meeting including an informational presentation about the budget on Monday, March 4, at 6 p.m. at Harwood Union Middle/High School and online via Zoom and the district’s YouTube channel. School officials will answer questions and discuss the proposed budget at that time. Meeting details are on the school district's annual meeting warning.
Harwood is one of six Central Vermont school districts whose students attend half-day career training programs at the Central Vermont Career Center in Barre. This year 28 Harwood students attend CVCC.
Waterbury is one of 18 communities to vote on the center’s budget and officers. The proposed budget of $4,604,130 for 2024-25 is up 11% over the current year’s budget. Funding for the career center is already included in the contributing school districts’ proposed budgets for next year.
The Career Center School District School Board will hold its annual meeting and informational presentation about its proposed budget on Monday, Feb. 26, at 6 p.m. at the career center and online using Google Meet. Details of that meeting including the link for the public to attend online are on the meeting warning. A recording of the meeting will also be posted on the district’s website cvtcc.org.
See the Waterbury town website’s Voting and Elections page and Annual Town Reports page for more election information.